WoW Forever already has a surprisingly capable default interface.
Blizzard has built in a damage meter, cooldown manager, swing timer, combined bags and several other tools that Classic players traditionally installed addons to obtain. Forever is also deliberately restricting what combat addons can calculate while encounters are happening.
And yet, naturally, the addon authors have arrived anyway.
With the November 4 launch approaching, a recognizable collection of Forever addons is already taking shape. Some replace parts of the interface. Others organize bags, improve maps, help plan talents or simply tell you which piece of Lua just exploded.
Based on the current beta ecosystem and the current selection highlighted by Icy Veins, these are nine WoW Forever addons worth knowing about before launch.
1. EllesmereUI
EllesmereUI is probably the biggest option if you want to rebuild the entire Forever interface rather than install several smaller addons.
It lets you customize action bars, unit frames and other UI elements through a fairly straightforward interface. You can right-click individual elements to reach their settings directly, which is considerably friendlier than digging through seventeen layers of menus while trying to remember what “FrameAnchorOffsetY” was supposed to mean.
EllesmereUI also includes its own map tools and customizable Cooldown Manager.
That last feature is interesting because Forever already includes Blizzard's own Cooldown Manager. This is going to become a recurring theme: many Forever addons are not adding functionality the game completely lacks. They are giving players more control over how that functionality looks and behaves.
2. Details!
Details! hardly needs an introduction. It has been one of WoW's dominant combat-analysis addons for years, and it already works with Forever.
Blizzard provides its own damage and healing meters this time, so Details is no longer mandatory simply to see who is doing damage. It can still present information differently and, importantly for Classic-style gameplay, provide useful threat information.
Threat matters enormously when tanks do not possess twenty years of modern threat-generation conveniences.
Forever's addon environment is different, however. As we covered in our guide to WoW Forever's combat addon restrictions, Blizzard is using much of modern WoW's restricted UI architecture. Addons can display useful information, but Blizzard does not want them automatically solving encounters or making combat decisions for players.
3. RestedXP
If your idea of leveling involves efficiency rather than wandering into every cave because it looks suspicious, RestedXP is already supporting Forever.
The addon can provide route guidance, an objective arrow, automatic quest acceptance and turn-ins, leveling-time tracking and routes adjusted around your character.
There is an amusing tension here because Forever is deliberately designed to make leveling matter again. Blizzard's own data shows that leveling from 1 to 20 currently takes almost exactly as long as Classic.
RestedXP will therefore not make Forever a fast game.
It will simply help you be extremely organized while playing a slow one.
4. Platynator
Platynator focuses on nameplates and unit information.
The interface can be customized heavily, but one of its particularly useful Forever features is identifying enemies connected to quests currently sitting in your quest log.
That sounds minor until you are staring at eight nearly identical gnolls trying to remember which particular variety contains the liver required by a man standing three zones away.
Nameplate addons have always been one of WoW's most useful UI upgrades, and Forever's more traditional open-world questing makes them relevant again.
5. BugSack and BugGrabber
This is technically two addons, but they function as a pair.
BugGrabber catches Lua errors generated by addons, while BugSack stores them so you can inspect what actually went wrong instead of repeatedly closing error windows and hoping the problem develops shame.
They are particularly useful during beta because many Forever addons are still being adapted to the client.
Once the game launches and addons mature, they may feel less essential. Right now, they are remarkably useful whenever your carefully constructed interface decides that opening the character sheet constitutes an existential threat.
6. Baganator
Forever already supports combined bags, so the days of installing an addon simply because six separate bag windows made you angry are largely behind us.
Baganator still goes considerably further.
It lets you organize, categorize and search your inventory while choosing between a unified view or a more structured layout. That becomes increasingly useful as Forever fills your bags with profession materials, Camping items, quest objects and the game's enormous amount of redesigned loot.
Considering Blizzard is adding more than 600 profession recipes, bag organization may eventually qualify as an endgame activity.
7. Leatrix Maps
Leatrix Maps adds coordinates, dungeon and raid locations and additional customization to the world map.
Forever is intentionally avoiding the extremely guided feel of modern questing, so a better map can be useful without becoming a complete GPS system.
It is particularly handy if you are exploring for some of Forever's new secrets, including systems such as the 20-book collection that rewards necklaces and rings.
Knowing roughly where you are remains useful even when the game still expects you to figure out why you are there.
8. Talents Forever
Talents Forever turns the Vanilla-style talent interface into something much easier to experiment with.
You can build hypothetical talent setups without spending points, test alternatives, save builds and share them with other players.
That is particularly valuable because Forever's talent trees are still familiar enough to look simple while containing enough new abilities and class changes to make experimentation worthwhile.
Blizzard has also made talent experimentation less painful through extremely cheap respec testing, while the default UI now lets you inspect another player's talents directly.
Talents Forever fills the remaining gap: planning the build before committing to it.
9. Forever Dungeon Journal
This may be the most specifically Forever-focused addon on the list.
Forever Dungeon Journal creates something resembling Retail WoW's Adventure Guide for Classic-style dungeons. It can show potential dungeon and quest rewards, available quests and the levels at which those quests become accessible.
That is particularly valuable because Blizzard is deliberately hiding huge amounts of Forever loot from dataminers. We recently covered how more than 12,500 Forever items have had their stats concealed.
The Dungeon Journal will therefore become more useful as the community actually discovers that loot.
It does not necessarily ruin discovery.
It remembers what everybody discovered after the screaming stopped.
You Probably Do Not Need All Nine
The biggest mistake would be treating this as a mandatory installation checklist.
Forever already has a much stronger default interface than Classic. Our WoW Forever beginner's guide covers many of the built-in tools worth trying before installing anything.
If Blizzard's damage meter does everything you need, you may not need Details. If the default bags work for you, skip Baganator. If you enjoy discovering routes yourself, RestedXP may actively make the game less enjoyable.
The interesting part is that Forever's addon scene already looks different from Classic's.
The basic information is increasingly built into the game.
The addons are becoming about choice.
Which, after twenty years of Warcraft UI archaeology, feels strangely modern.
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